Word: dickinson
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...here refer to the entire corpus of the poet's verse? If so, why does the Harvard Press regularly grant permission for both facsimile reproductions and alternatively cast typographic contruals of discrete words, lines and poems? And, assuming that some definitive notion exists as to the nature of "the Dickinson Work," who has the right to decide for everyone else in what its integrity consists...
Furthermore, what exactly is in need of being preserved? Repositories such as the Houghton and Boston Public libraries preserve the integrity of Dickinson manuscripts, but are they responsible as well for "protectively" limiting the (physically non-invasive) interpretation of that material? As for "presenting" Dickinson's work, any presentational rendering beyond the actual physical display of the manuscripts and their facsimiles is, in the nature of the case, an interpretation, and as such open (like my printed rendering. Todd and Higginson's Johnson's, and Franklin's) to critique and even to being discredited...
...most troubling element of Koyanis' statement is the implied attitude toward the general reader. The idea seems to be that any print version of Dickinson poems designed--like "Final Harvest?" --with the non-specialist in mind threatens the integrity of the poet's work...
...project in part because of the variorum edition that Ralph Franklin is preparing for them. Koyanis asserts that the Harvard Press declined my request because my next amounts merely to "another variant of the typography. The question is," she declares, "How many competing versions do you want?" The typography? Dickinson handwrote her poetry--resisted the printing of verse as editors oversaw it in her day. The growing consensus among scholars in our day is that not only does not authoritative typographic text of Dickinson poems exist, but that no definitive typographic edition is possible...
...final point: who is Melinda T. Koyanis (or the Harvard Press, for that matter) to decide the issue of the number of competing printed versions of Emily Dickinson's poetry? Since when has a copyright-and-permission manager or a university press the right to determine universal standards and rules governing such competition among interpretations? A copyright attorney with whom I consulted noted that while the Harvard University Press can decline to give permissions for whatever reasons it pleases, it does not follow that the Press has the authority to interfere with the publication of alternative typographic interpretations of Dickinson...